


The Space Between Us

by jeeno2



Series: Rebelcaptain Stories [7]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Reunions, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 07:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9225509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeeno2/pseuds/jeeno2
Summary: Cassian will always find his way back to her.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pop14](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pop14/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Crash into You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9093979) by [jeeno2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeeno2/pseuds/jeeno2). 



> Written as a response to this tumblr prompt: "Mamihlapinatapei: The look between two people in which each loves the other but is too afraid to make the first move." Technically a missing moment from my other fic, "Crash into You," but it also stands on its own.

Jyn is used to thinking she can handle just about anything.

She was the best shot in Saw’s militia from the time she was ten years old.  Since then, she’s yet to meet anyone who can take her down so long as she’s got either a good blaster in her holster or a solid, blunt instrument in her hands.

But she was, she realizes now, completely unprepared for this particular moment.  

“It’s you,” she says, all the breath in her body leaving her at once when she sees him there, leaning so mock-casually against the door to her bunk it would almost be funny if it weren’t so completely unexpected.  

Cassian looks exhausted.  Like he’s lost ten pounds he didn’t have to spare in the two weeks since she last saw him.  His eyes are hooded, haunted, with dark circles ringing them, and his hair hangs limply in his face in dark clumps.  He holds his right arm tightly to his body inside of a Rebellion-grade sling that looks new.  Cassian has never once, in the whole time she’s known him, let anyone strap any part of him down, or in, to any sort of medical device that might limit his mobility.  Not even after Scarif.

His injuries must be very serious for him to allow it now.

Cassian nods.  “Yeah.  It’s me,” he says.  His voice is raw, hoarse – with exhaustion, or pain, or emotion; or perhaps some combination of the three.  “I, uh.  I just got back to base a couple hours ago.”  He swallows.  Hesitates before continuing.  “I came to find you as soon as the medic said I was good to go.”

Jyn blinks at him stupidly, stunned by his words and by his presence, completely unable to think of a single thing to say to him.

Because even though the others kept insisting there was a chance he’d come back, she hadn’t let herself believe it.  Not really.  His mission to Hoth was so horribly stupid and short-sighted.  A suicide mission, really.  When he’d said goodbye to her it felt so permanent, and so much a part of the natural order of things in a life where everyone leaves her eventually.  

But now he’s back – he’s  _here_  – staring at her intensely as she stands in front of him in her thin cotton nightgown.  He’s a good ten feet away from her, no part of him within reach, and yet she can feel his warm gaze on her face, on her body, as acutely as any physical touch.

She laughs, then.  Of all the stupid things to do.  It’s a nervous, tittering little noise that’s nothing like her and sounds like it’s coming from somewhere entirely outside her body.  Whether she does it because of surprise, or due to nerves, or simply because of pure, unbridled joy she cannot say, though she feels all three of those things intensely, and in equal measure, right now.  

Whatever its cause, her laughter seems to put him at ease.  He doesn’t take his eyes off her, but he relaxes a little, the fist of his free hand unclenching a bit as the corners of his mouth quirk up into a half-smile.

She wants to go to him.  To, once and for all, shove them both off this knife’s edge they’ve been balancing on ever since Jedha.  She wants to close the short distance between them and show him – with words, with actions, with everything she is and everything she has – all the ways she missed him while he was gone. 

But he beats her to it.  Slowly, as though this is all happening in some kind of vivid daydream, he enters her room, placing one foot deliberately in front of the other until finally, at last, he is by her side.

He tentatively reaches up with his good hand and then stops, his hand frozen in mid-air just a few inches from her face.  He bites his lip hesitantly and looks into her eyes.  He’s asking for permission.    

She swallows, nodding.  “Welcome home,” she murmurs without hesitation, granting it.

She closes her eyes for half a beat.  When she opens them again, he is smiling at her.  He slowly reaches out, and caresses her cheek with calloused fingertips, his cool touch against her skin so gentle it breaks her heart.  

A sigh slips out of her unbidden, and she closes her eyes again, leaning into his touch.

Emboldened by her response he leans forward, then, and presses his lips to hers.  His kiss is gentle, but insistent, and firm.  Just like him.  She hums against his mouth as she wraps her arms around him, pulling him closer and angling her head to deepen the kiss.  

As they kiss and gently cling to one another in the gloom of her bunk, Jyn smiles -- because she's just come home too.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to find me on tumblr, I'm there as jeeno2.


End file.
